AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
In January of 2007, China destroyed its antiquated Feng Yun 1C weather satellite with an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile launched from a modified ballistic missile. The satellite kill sent a powerful message rippling across the Pacific: space was no longer the US military's private, star-speckled sandbox.
At the time, Globalsecurity.org quoted US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe as saying: "the US believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space arena."
Still, some "spirit of cooperation" must have survived the missile test, as just last week US Strategic Command hosted the vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission (rough equivalent of the US Pentagon), General Xu Caihu. While the visit's purpose was ostensibly to improve Sino-US military relations, some speculate it may have signalled the beginning of a contemporary (and explicitly military) space race.
Afterward, General Kevin Chilton of US Strategic Command announced that China had made impressive strides in space technology, and that the US hoped to learn more about Chinese intentions.
This week, the BBC quoted the head of China's air force, General Xu Qiliang, as saying
Military competition has shifted towards space. Such a shift is a major trend now, and such expansion is a historical inevitability [...] To some extent, if you control space you can also control the land and the sea, and you will be in an advantageous position.
China began researching ASAT technology in the 1960s, though that research did not kick into high gear until the 1980s. Since China's first space mission in 2003, its space technology has improved at a tremendous rate, including a moon mission by an unmanned probe in 2008. Even earlier, in 2006, US National Reconaissance Office Director Donald Kerr announced that "a US satellite had been 'painted,' or illuminated, by a gorund-based laser in China," either as a test of technology capable of blinding surveillance satellites or to collect guidance data for future ASAT missile tests. GlobalSecurity analysts speculate that China could have the capability to develop laser ASAT weapons in the near future.
The United States, meanwhile, has a proven ASAT capability in its Aegis Cruisers, one of which successfully downed a dead satellite in 2008 using an SM-3 missile, an interceptor originally designed to kill ballistic missiles. As early as 1985, the US Air Force killed a satellite with a special missile launched from an F-15 fighter aircraft flying at high altitude (80,000 ft). The Obama administration has made repeated statements that it hopes to keep space free of missiles, however, and US scientists have repeatedly warned of the dire impact space warfare and its resultant debris would have on important civilian communication and GPS satellites.
On the heels of General Xu Qiliang's aggressive statements, China Daily reported that the foreign ministry issued a statement affirming that "we [China] oppose the weaponization of space or a space arms race or a space arms race [...] China has never and will not participate in an outer space arms race in any form."
Zhai Dequan of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association added that "Western media has misrepresented China's growth during the time when many countries are advancing space technology."
Across the Pacific, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates described the military relationship between the US and China bluntly as "on-again, off-again."
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